Scott Redding downplayed the painful effects of taking a footpeg in his upper leg during a high-side crash, as he fell early in WorldSBK race one down Craner Curves at Donington.
He fronted up to the TV cameras in any case after visiting the medical centre to get patched up on Saturday afternoon.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said, “Just a bit beat up and just kind of got caught really with the wet patch. I know everyone was kind of struggling, but I seemed to have a little bit more issue. It is what it is. Nothing I could do.
"I am just struggling for grip. I don’t really know what’s going on at the moment. Normally in the rain I’m quite strong. It feels like I’m on ice skates out there, and guys are overtaking me and they’re not even moving.
"Jonathan looks like he’s on rails in the rain out there. It’s kind of hard for me. We’re kind of doing one thing with the setup, then we go in another way with the setup. It’s just trial and error all the time. So, I’m not really getting rhythm.
"I’m tipping into the corner and I already feel the rear sliding. As soon as I touch the throttle, it's going. There’s no feeling to have grip. It’s quite difficult around a circuit like this to have no rear grip going into the corners. So, we managed to find something and I could get a bit of a rhythm, which kind of put me on the second row which is a bit of a salvage job, really. We will see tomorrow what we can do.”
It is not the character of the track, or lack of data from 2020, or anything of the like, that is currently hurting Redding’s push to what was supposed to be a championship challenge this year, after finishing runner-up in his rookie year last season. It is not, apparently a Donington or data problem.
“Not really; no, it doesn’t really bother me,” said Redding. “The problem is I’m just not really getting rhythm around here. I don’t have the feeling that I normally have with the bike. I’m simply fighting a lot. It’s not smooth. That’s why in the rain it’s difficult, in the dry it’s difficult.
"The crash was probably due because I was trying to do something the bike didn’t really want to do. I had more lean angle than the other guys to try and make the same turn as them down into Craner. That’s probably why it caught me out and the others could get away with it.”
What Redding can do on Sunday in the sprint and then the second full 23-lap race Two, he is not sure right now.
“I need to see; I really don’t know,” said Scott. “I’m riding the bike with no feeling at the moment. It’s not a nice place to be in. But I’m confident in my team that they can put something together for me tomorrow, something that’s a bit easier for me to ride, to be consistent and feel like I can push.
"We know that I’m fast, but it’s just getting that feeling to go fast. I hope tomorrow we have something whether it’s wet or dry, a bit of feeling and try to put in two good races.”
